Into Thin Air

Hitch warns us in his introduction that this tale has been told many times and in many forms, and that is the problem. Other than the chance to see his daughter as the damsel in distress, this version is way too obvious and a one-trick loser.

The best version is undoubtedly "So Long at the Fair", though of course Hitch is proud of his similar "The Lady Vanishes". Pat Hitchcock checks into a Parisian hotel with her mom, who feels ill, and suddenly everyone covers up the fact that mom ever existed.

I suppose if one has never encountered this particular story gimmick it might prove suspenseful, but once it becomes apparent, the trip to the final reveal is just boring.

This is both a solid version of the story idea here titled "Into Thin Air", and a nice opportunity for Pat Hitchcock to take a starring role that, for the most part, also plays to her strengths. The story is an interesting one, and has been used from time to time in various forms, with Alfred Hitchcock himself having used a variant of the basic idea in "The Lady Vanishes". Here, it fits the half-hour anthology format pretty well, using the running time to draw out the mystery just long enough, without building up undue expectations for the resolution.

Pat Hitchcock plays a young woman traveling in Paris with her mother, and experiencing a series of disorienting and frightening events when her mother becomes ill and then disappears. Everyone around her insists on denying facts that she knows to be true, and indeed they always have convincing ways of proving her wrong. If you look at the story from a coldly clinical perspective, there are perhaps a couple of holes in it, and the resolution is perhaps not completely satisfying, but while it lasts, it succeeds quite well in establishing a convincing atmosphere of baffled fear.

In his closing appearance, Alfred Hitchcock plays the proud father, at least to the degree that his dry nature allows him to. Pat Hitchcock was never going to be a star, but she obviously shared her parents' enthusiasm for making good movies, and she always gave solid, believable, sympathetic performances in the various character roles in which she appeared. For Hitchcock fans, it's very nice to see her get this chance to take the spotlight herself for a little while.

When a young woman leaves her ill mother in a Paris hotel room and comes back later, she finds her mother is missing, and all the hotel's employees deny she and her mother were booked in.

Patricia Hitchcock is quite endearing as a daughter who finds her mother missing. You can feel her desperation. The story is a reworking of 'So long at the Fair' and the Lady Vanishes. It's quite impressive how the plot and good characterisation can be efficiently condensed into 25 mins. It's a watchable thriller with a satisfying twist.

No, you're not the only person who noticed similarities between "Into Thin Air" (Season 1, Episode 5) and Hitchcock's own 'The Lady Vanishes (1938).' Indeed, Hitch himself openly acknowledges the mutual source for both works, humbly referring to the director of the latter in the third person. This episode, directed by Don Medford, is certainly inferior to its cinematic counterpart, but it effectively creates a sense of paranoid mystery from a familiar story. Daughter Patricia Hitchcock, who had previously appeared in small roles in 'Stage Fright (1950)' and 'Strangers on a Train (1951),' is given the lead role – she does a fair job, but certainly wasn't the next Ingrid Bergman or Grace Kelly. Pat Hitchcock has a slightly-whiny voice that she shows off when asked to sound panicked, the sort of hysterical performance that wasn't uncommon among actresses in the 1940s. Her father, of course, seems rather proud of the effort, and mischievously remarks "incidentally, I thought the little leading lady was rather good, didn't you?"

When Diana Winthrop (Hitchcock) books herself and her sick mother (Mary Forbes) into a Paris hotel, she doesn't give a second thought to her own mental health. However, after being sent away to collect some medicine for her mother, Diana returns to find that her mother is missing, and, worse still, nobody in the hotel claims to remember her. Beginning to doubt her sanity, she seeks help from the British embassy, but they have a hard time taking her word over that of half a dozen hotel employees and a sign-in register from which the name Winthrop has disappeared. The story fits snugly into the half-hour time-slot, though the conclusion is not as satisfying as it might have been. "Into Thin Air,' just like 'The Lady Vanishes,' toys with the intriguing question of how one can maintain confidence in their own sanity if everybody is scheming against them. After all, as Orwell put it, perhaps a lunatic is simply a minority of one.

The story is pretty intriguing and remind me of Lady Vanishes in some way and i still enjoyed the episode. We are wondering what happened and where is the mother? We just want the explanation and now we just wait for answers for all our questions. A very good investigations story that is pleasant to follow.